Portable HIV Test Draws Praise and Concern

From CDC National Prevention Information Network

May 30, 2003

A rapid and portable HIV test that health officials in
Seattle begin using today is raising concern about how to help
people who may soon learn, in a public setting, that they have
HIV. The local health department plans to use the new test, which
can yield results in less than a half-hour, in gay bathhouses and
sex clubs. "Traditionally people have found their results out in
clinical settings or from people who can provide immediate
emotional support or connection to outreach services," said Fred
Swanson, executive director for Gay City Health Project, a
leading gay men's health organization.

The portability and speed of the new test, Swanson said,
raise the prospect of people finding out they are HIV-positive in
locations where they are less likely to receive an immediate
connection to counseling and other services. Local health
officials, however, believe they can combine rapid results with
effective counseling, even at clubs and bathhouses.

Washington state law requires that counseling be provided
before and after an HIV test is administered. But the law is not
specific as to precisely what form the counseling should take.
And, said Paul Feldman of Seattle's Lifelong AIDS Alliance, "the
rules certainly didn't contemplate rapid testing." Feldman said
the old test provided time for people to comprehend counseling
information and the possibility of a positive result. "Are
recipients of positive test results going to be able to
internalize the information they've received around the test when
they don't have any time to mull the information over?" he asked.

The health department has drafted protocols for using the
new rapid HIV test and plans to begin a trial run today at an
undisclosed Seattle location. If that goes well, the department
will move the test into bathhouses and sex clubs, where it
currently offers the slower HIV test to patrons. The tests are
conducted in private rooms at the sites, and are administered by
health professionals. In the Seattle area, gay men make up 2
percent of the population but 85 percent of the AIDS cases
diagnosed between 1983 and 2000, according to public health
statistics.

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